Cafe Hitch-hike

2019-10-31

Buckle up, Buttercup

My 18 year-old niece Ariel was murdered in Orlando last week Friday. Whoever did it to her took her to an abandoned house in a low-end neighborhood and set it on fire. Her charred body couldn't be identified, but they were able to ID her by a fingerprint. Hopefully, Orlando LE will be able to find out who did this to her and bring them to justice.

Everyone knew Ariel was in and out of some serious trouble. Running with motherfuckers who ran guns and drugs. Every other pic she posted on social media was with guns or she was behind a puff of smoke and smoking blunts. She tried getting out of the life but was always pulled back in. Her parents Beads (my sister) and George couldn't set her straight, and neither could the juvenile justice system.

I found out while I ate breakfast this morning. The bomb dropped on my siblings when Uncle Joe died last year was a smoke bomb compared to the dirty bomb that got dropped on them with this news. Everyone is flipping the fuck out. One of my uncles called me this morning about to go vigilante, and I heard my mom drunkenly crying in the background, why did she leave me? What did she have to go?.

I am numb. My ability to whisk difficult feelings served me well. I am at work because we are short staffed and I would had just been walking in circles all day at home. I'm just trying to make sense of all this shit.

I ran a little interference because I was asked by people (especially the Lotzschultzes, my step-father's family) what the fuck happened. I presented the facts, and added:

I'm not gonna point fingers at anyone over whose fault this is and dive into crap that happened way back when.

It's anyone's worse nightmare to have a child go like this, and Beads and those close to Ariel are experiencing a hell no one should ever have to see.

I then posted this for other inquiring minds on social media:

Rest in heaven with the angels, and be in eternal peace, my niece Arielle Edie.

Pray that our loved ones may find comfort, closure, and yes-- justice.

**Please respect my family's privacy and dignity at this time.**

They need prayers, love, and healing more than anything right now. The rest is in God's hands.

Yeah, I had to ask people to please respect my family's dignity, especially considering that Bre's cousin June was being a royal cunt last week. I made it a point to tell Rae, Bre's older, paternal half-sister, so she and the Lotzschultzes didn't add fuel to the fire and be act completely heartless to my family after what happened. I had to tell people who considered themselves Christian to send thoughts of prayers, healing, and justice.

This is my worse nightmare come true for my family. With the shape it was in, I wondered when the hell a murder or murder-suicide would take place between us. It surprised a few of us that my grandfather's sons outlived him, and that the first to go was from late-diagnosed cancer as opposed to unnatural causes. We then have my sister Lana the Wild Child who went underground somewhere in Travis County, Texas because she's up to no good; I can't wait to see how she responds to this one because she was close to Ariel. I wondered how terribly low things would have to go (and most likely keep on going). The person it happened to was one of the more vulnerable of us, an 18 year-old woman.

The typical denial kicked in as I walked into the building this morning. A part of me said, 'how do they know for sure that body was hers? Surely there was a mistake. She is up, and about, and doing her thing. It was all a misunderstanding.' But, I've crossed this enough times to know how it looks.

God, I wish this was a weird dream and that I'd just wake up, and everything would be normal (for how it's defined) again. I wish this was one long, bad and ugly dream, but it's not. This is a seriously major game changer in the family. It didn't happen because of health, it happened because things really were that terrible. I think our day of reckoning is now, and as an old friend would suggest, buckle up, Buttercup. There's going to be a serious shitstorm to come.

Addendum: I sent e-mails to the 2 journalists who covered this story and beseeched them to keep covering this. If not for my family, then how about this story go out to parents and loved ones of troubled young adults?

downwind | upstream